Monday, September 13, 2010

The Autumn Of Discontent

I hope TTT writes about the new payment model being used by all of the agencies: rates are low.- OT is rare and starts at 40 not 35.- More of flat rates.- No osha guidelines whatsoever---inoperable bathrooms, non-ergomanic chairs, locked fire exits.- Some places do not even provide air since client will not pay for it.- Others do not even provide drinking water which is required by law.- A posting with links of agencies and how to report hazardous environs needs to be published.

Helene Diamond's ridiculous questionnaire. Don't buy into the b.s. They are only interested in your response to question #8. As the overworn cliche goes, you can apply Mascara and pile on 20 layers of make-up to a pig, but it is still just a pig. No matter how you cut it, providing a representation as to an estimated rate of review of documents without actually seeing or handling the documents is clearly unethical.

QUESTIONS FOR DOCUMENT REVIEW CANDIDATES

1) What types of issues have you looked for in the course of your reviews? Forensic accounting, FCPA, patent, pharma reviews/technical issues, FDA regulatory issues, financial issuesa) Are you usually looking at one particular issue or several? b) Are they discrete or complex?

2) What is the extent of discretion you have used in reviewing the documents? a) Is the review essentially objective or subjective in nature? b) Is the decision regarding whether the issue is implicated clear on the face of the document or does it require thoughtful consideration?

3) In what types of cases have you been involved? a) Are they criminal or civil? b) What has been the nature of the civil cases, i.e claim disputes, patent issues, securities issues, pharmaceutical matters, class actions?c) Are they on the plaintiff’s side or defense?

4) What has been the purpose of the reviews?

5) What types of electronic platforms or systems have you used?

6) What other functions have you done in the databases, i.e. running searches?

7) What is the range in size of the reviews, i.e. how many documents in total?

8) What is the rate of review, i.e. how many documents can you review in one day on average?

While for-profit schools have profited and prospered thanks to federal dollars, some of their students have not," Duncan said. "Far too many for-profit schools are saddling students with debt they cannot afford in exchange for degrees and certificates they cannot use. This is a disservice to students and taxpayers

This whole industry is bullshit, I'm joining the military so I can at least get half my loans paid off in 3 years, and quite frankly I'd rather go to A-Stan than work my ass off enough to get the experience for this shit job: http://newyork.craigslist.org/mnh/lgl/1951757896.html And no, 5 years of code-monkey will not qualify you for this gem of a gig.

For decades, American economic sages such as Larry Summers, Tom Friedman, and Alan Greenspan have implied that manufacturing stuff was more or less obsolete—that the building blocks of the economy of the future would be cheap labor and expensive finance. The Chinese will make everything, while Americans will get rich selling each other ever more sophisticated financial instruments.

You might ask: What about the 98 percent of Americans who aren’t cut out for working for Goldman Sachs?

Well, you see, all we have to do is fix the schools. Then everybody will work for Goldman!

The Germans, however, never got this memo. All those speeches at Davos and articles in The Economist about how expensive skilled labor is the road to ruin might have worried them, but didn’t convince them. Thomas Geoghegan’s entertaining new book about the triumph of the German economy, Were You Born on the Wrong Continent? How the European Model Can Help You Get a Life, explains why.

Ignoring the anti-manufacturing bias of Anglo-American economists, the Germans have kept their files to the grindstone. Germany exports more each year than America, despite having only 27 percent as many people. German machinery is more than competitive on the world market, even with Germany’s high wages, six-week vacations, strong unions, and workers getting half the seats on many corporate boards.

Despite having to bail out the profligate Greeks, the German economy in 2010 is expanding and unemployment dropping. Germany runs a trade surplus. And, as illustrated by the blockbuster sales in Germany of Germany Abolishes Itself, Thilo Sarrazin’s new book criticizing immigration, the self-respect of the German nation is finally coming out of the closet.

The Anglo-American mantra of low wages being “good for the economy” has provided the intellectual keystone for pro-immigration pundits in the U.S. Although Geoghegan avoids mention of immigration in America, his analysis of why the German economic dynamo keeps humming subverts by analogy the case for immigration.

Geoghegan (whose Irish Catholic surname rhymes with “Reagan”) is a political anomaly in 21st Century America: he’s a 1940s-type pro-union Democrat. Geoghegan has scratched out a career defending in court (he’s a labor union lawyer) and in print (his first book was Which Side Are You On? Trying to Be for Labor When It’s Flat on Its Back), the interests of the least fashionable people in America: beefy, middle-aged, working class white guys in windbreakers.

Geoghegan is well aware that his new book’s central topic—German factory pay—isn’t stylish. (In his breezy manner, he entitles one chapter I’m Sorry I Picked the Germans.) He’s also comically cognizant of his shortcomings as an expert on Germany: Geoghegan doesn’t speak much German, he’s spent less than a year in the country, and, like a lot of the Germans he tries (and often fails) to interview, he’s introverted and doesn’t strike up quotable conversations easily.

Yet, the subject is so important, and so ignored in the U.S., that somebody had to do it. And Geoghegan is a fine choice. He’s a witty writer, especially at mocking his own neuroses, much like his old friend Mickey Kaus. In 2009, Geoghegan made a quixotic run for the Democratic nomination for the North Side of Chicago House seat that was previously held by three of the most power-crazed (and hard-to-spell) big names in politics: Rahm Emanuel, Rod Blagojevich, and Dan Rostenkowski. (I suspect Geoghegan’s losing campaign inspired Kaus’s equally quixotic run against incumbent Senator Barbara Boxer in the 2010 California Democratic primary.)

Geoghegan and Kaus disagree vociferously, however, over unions. I think much of the reason is that Kaus is a Los Angeles car guy, while Geoghegan is a Chicago Elevated guy. The LA car hierarchy of prestige is: BMW at the top; then Japanese brands made in Japan (e.g., Lexus); then, at the bottom, Japanese brands made in America (e.g., Honda). People on the Westside of Los Angeles have heard rumors that there exist American cars with exotic names, such as “Chevy”, that are made in United Auto Worker-organized plants. But nobody knows anybody who has bought one.

One day, I would like to read a discussion between Geoghegan and Kaus over why General Motors and the UAW have floundered—while BMW , and the giant IG Metall union, have fought yet flourished.

Which Side Am I On: labor or management?

You know, the more I think about it, the more it seems that these quaint-sounding 1950s-style windbreakers v. suits arguments are the kind that dominate politics in a healthy, cohesive polity, such as America in the 1950s. In a democracy, you have to argue over something, and fighting over which interest group gets how much money is, at least, honestly crass.

While people in Los Angeles may like their foreign cars for sporty or luxury, let's not pretend that there are no American cars in L.A.

Many people in L.A. like (or used to like) large S.U.V. type cars. Hummers were popular, and probably are still somewhat popular. After all, only a freakin' movie star would have enough cash to throw around to fuel up those puppies. The SUV niche was dominated by the American car manufacturers.